Develop Signals

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

“They can because they think they can”- Virgil

People can interrupt your flow of work. Drop in visitor could take away your time. While you should handle such interruptions tactfully, you should also maintain good inter personal relationship and rapport.

Sometimes you may have an embarrassing situation where you are cornered by talkative people. You may find it embarrassing to tell them that you have some other work. You may think that the other person may mistake you if you interrupt his flow. At the same time, you may not be able to continue the conversation. How to deal with such a situation?

A busy company executive whom I know told me that he had a tactic for doing this. He had devised a signal with some of his assistants. When the assistants noticed him rubbing his ear lobe, it meant that they should come to his ‘rescue’. One of his assistants would barge into say that he was needed urgently somewhere! He said that it never failed. Another senior executive of a company will have his secretary to interrupt a meeting if extends beyond 25 minutes. His secretary will come and remind him about his ‘next appointment’.

You have to accept others as they are. They do not have the intention of wasting your time. However, they may not know your compulsions for your time. You need tact to deal with a situation like this.